


Tanaka's Tactics

by maychorian



Series: Tanaka Week [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Senpai-Kouhai Relationship, tanaka wants to teach his kouhai, these kids are precious and i would like you to appreciate their preciousness, tsukki doesn't want to learn, yamaguchi is adorbs as per usual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-03-05
Packaged: 2018-03-16 10:18:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3484568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maychorian/pseuds/maychorian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tsukishima just wants to drink his water, but Tanaka is the most annoying senpai ever. And Yamaguchi isn't helping at all.</p><p> </p><p>  <a href="http://tanakaweek.tumblr.com/post/110118367853/tanaka-week-2015-prompts">Tanaka Week</a>, Day Four.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tanaka's Tactics

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt for Day 4 was intimidation tactics. Also expressions. They kinda go together.

"You gotta step up your intimidation game, Tsukishima." Tanaka was hovering in his space, leaning over to grin into his face as Tsukishima sat on the floor steadily drinking his water. "You got the verbal part down real good, but the _expressions._ You gotta work on your expressions."

Tsukishima frowned at him, feeling his eyebrows bunch up in the middle.

Tanaka laughed and pointed at his forehead. "Yeah, like that! Exactly like that! You got a good start, but ya hafta go farther."

Yamaguchi began giggling helplessly, falling away from where he'd been sitting at Tsukishima's elbow. He lay on the floor and laughed at the ceiling, then folded his hands over his mouth in a futile attempt to keep it in. Tsukishima frowned at him, too.

Tanaka took this as encouragement. He grinned, wide and delighted, and crouched down in front of Tsukishima. "Here, I'll show ya."

"I wish you wouldn't..."

"Like this!" Tanaka leaned forward, bringing his face far too close to Tsukishima's, and pulled his mouth down into a harsh snarl. It might have been convincing if his eyes weren't sparkling with glee.

Tsukishima drew his head back, his face lengthening in dismay. Tanaka's breath was _offensive._ It _offended_ him. "Stop that."

Tanaka grinned. "Not until you do it, too. C'mon, you bastard, show me your team spirit."

"I have no team spirit," Tsukishima said stiffly.

Yamaguchi stopped giggling long enough to give him a look of extreme betrayal. _I know you're lying,_ he didn't have to say aloud, because his face said everything for him. He rolled up on his side so he could kick Tsukishima in the thigh. Not hard—it barely rocked his leg on the floor—but enough for him to feel it. Tsukishima sighed and sought the ceiling for strength.

Tanaka watched the exchange with a shark-toothed grin. Then he looked in Tsukishima's face and shrugged broadly, as if to say, _Even our kindest teammate thinks you should try it._ "Come on," he said again. "Show me what you got."

Tsukishima wrinkled his nose in distaste. But he slumped in surrender. "If it will make you go away..."

Tanaka nodded. "Nothing else will."

"Fine." 

He had to work up to it. Tsukishima sat still for a few moments, gathering energy. Then he did it.

He dragged his face into a scowl, baring his teeth and hardening his eyes. He tried to imagine that he was going to scare off Tanaka, make him go away and leave him alone, but even he knew that it wouldn't work. Tanaka wasn't scared by intimidating faces, whether on his teammates or on his rivals. He _enjoyed_ them.

Thus it was now. Tanaka fell back, laughing fit to burst. His butt hit the floor and he had to catch himself on his elbows to keep from sprawling all over. At least he was no longer breathing into Tsukishima's face.

"That's terrible!" he bellowed. "You need to practice much, much more! No one will ever be scared of you with a face like that!"

He scrambled up to a crouch again, facing Tsukishima. "Uwaah, didja really think that would work?"

"I thought Tsukki was scary," Yamaguchi said softly. He was sitting up again, watching the proceedings with wide eyes.

"Ah, you should try too!" Tanaka turned to him at once, beckoning with both hands. "Come, come, show me your intimidation face!"

Yamaguchi thought about it for a long moment, his eyes narrowed in contemplation. Tanaka waited patiently, only rocking slightly on the balls of his feet. Then Yamaguchi nodded in decision and did it. He wrinkled up his nose and showed his teeth in his best imitation of Tanaka's "scary" face.

It was hilariously adorable. If Tsukishima had had the energy, he would have slapped his own face in despair.

But Tanaka laughed like a thunderstorm and slapped his shoulder hard enough to bend Yamaguchi almost in half. "Good, good! That was a good first effort, kouhai! You should practice, too."

Yamaguchi nodded and beamed, ridiculously pleased with this ridiculous praise. Tsukishima couldn't believe this was happening to him. If Yamaguchi was going to subject him to this particular "practice," he wasn't going to be able to take it. He would break. He would die of embarrassment. 

But now Tanaka was looking at him again. His eyes were bright and expectant. "All right, now you. Try again! I wanna see it."

Tsukishima blinked, slow and incredulous. "I said I would do it once to make you go away. I did it once. Now go away."

"Aw, c'mon. Don't be like that."

"Tch." Tsukishima's face screwed up in a rictus of displeasure. Why was he being forced to endure this atrocity? He just wanted to _drink his water._ "Will you please just go. Away."

Tanaka blinked, his face blank with shock, and fell back on his rear again. Yamaguchi just stared, unsurprised. He'd seen this side of Tsukishima before and it didn't bother him.

"Oi." Tanaka straightened slowly, watching Tsukishima's face without blinking. He was moving slowly and warily, as if trying to avoid startling a wild dog. "That...huh. That was good."

Tsukishima narrowed his eyes at him in confusion. "What?"

"That...that was good. That was a good intimidation face. You should use that one in games."

Yamaguchi nodded solemnly. It was Tsukishima's turn to look at his friend in betrayal. "That was my normal face."

"It was really good, Tsukki." Yamaguchi's expression was completely earnest.

"Yeah," Tanaka said. He was still moving with a strange amount of care. "I'm gonna go...help clean up, now." And he pushed himself to his feet and was gone.

Tsukishima looked at Yamaguchi, blinking in confusion. "What was that? I don't understand what just happened."

Yamaguchi smiled. "It was a really good face."

Tsukishima didn't get it. But when did he ever get anything that happened in this weirdo team? Never, that was when.

At least he could drink his water now.


End file.
